Subscribe
Sign in
General
p/generalShare and discuss tech, products, business, startups, or product recommendations
Start new thread
Jeffrey Zirlin

I'm Jeff, co-founder of Axie Infinity which made over $1B revenue. AMA ๐Ÿ‘‡

byโ€ข

Axie is the #1 NFT game by DAU, marketplace volume, and cultural impact. As Growth Lead, my mission is to grow the size and strength of both the community and economy. I grew up playing video games and catching insects. Let's talk about community building, NFTs, metaverse. AMA ๐Ÿ‘‡

Add a comment

Replies

Best
Kevin Ridgway
How do you plan on growing the user base if gas prices make getting started very cost prohibitive?
The Jiho๐Ÿฆ‡๐Ÿ”Š
@program247365 We've deployed our own Ethereum side-chain, Ronin to solve exactly this!
David Marquez
Hi, such a big fan of Axie Infinity! I was sharing to my friend about how the new Play to Earn economy was booming especially for upcoming students but she was worried that the new generation of kids were going to be lazier and used to P2E versus traditional ways of working. I didnโ€™t disagree with her but I am totally for P2E but I was wondering what you thought about what happens in a world where that does happen? Thanks!
The Jiho๐Ÿฆ‡๐Ÿ”Š
@dayvough I think determination and grit do not stem from the nature of work. There are very hard working people that become hard working gamers!
Goutham
Axie Infinity is really fascinating. How did you build the community of first 10-100 users who could try out play-to-earn, Jeff?
The Jiho๐Ÿฆ‡๐Ÿ”Š
@gouthamj We hustled for every single community member! We would speak directly to the community through Discord, recruit members from the CryptoKitty community, and find people through Twitter, Reddit etc. Each member was super important and we built personal connections.
Russ Hamer
Hey Jeff, what did you find to be the most important part of building out your early user base so that you could reach critical mass and have Axie catapult into widespread success?
The Jiho๐Ÿฆ‡๐Ÿ”Š
@russ_hamer Unscalable 1 on 1 interactions to supercharge the involvement of the early community. 80% of our new players come from referrals, the gamers are the publishers and app stores with this new model.
Ryan Hoover
Jeff! Congrats. What's been the biggest surprise building Axie so far?
The Jiho๐Ÿฆ‡๐Ÿ”Š
@rrhoover Most of the cliche product and community building advice ended up working out and very few teams in Crypto follow these fundamentals.
BitcoinLouie
Hey Jihoz! : ) It's been amazing to see you take Axie from 2018 to what it is now. Congrats on your success man, $1B wow. I hope we can chill soon and catch up at the next NFT IRL event. We can discuss the idea of banning cats in real life again. Still cracks me up to this day some of the stuff we talked about on stream back in the days. Cheers, BitcoinLouie
The Jiho๐Ÿฆ‡๐Ÿ”Š
@bitcoinlouie Dude, it's been an insane journey! You were the first NFT streamers I ever watched. Sending love and let's hang out soon.
Jun Gong
Hey Jeff! Congrats on launching Ronin DEX! What's next for Axie and what's next for you - in terms of personal goals? Hope to see you in IRL again soon!
The Jiho๐Ÿฆ‡๐Ÿ”Š
@jun_gong Battles V2, our upgraded battle system, is top of pipeline!
Femi Omoluabi
Hi Jeff. Axie is brilliant, but it's become too expensive to get into. I understand that prices of axies are determined by market forces and it wouldn't be wise to put a forced cap on prices, however, I suggest the company creating some beginner/ basic axies (that can't be resold but can earn) at significantly lower prices so that more people can jump in and join the grind. As things stand today, interested potential users have to wonder whether to buy axies of a PlayStation 5. Anyway, great job so far and best wishes for the future.
The Jiho๐Ÿฆ‡๐Ÿ”Š
@ogunipe We will be working on adding some free starter Axies so people can try before they buy! In addition, there's a system in place where you can borrow Axies from those that have a bunch! This is called the "Scholarship System".
ฮผDefiTyฮผ
What does the adoption of Axie look like from USA users? Would a fortune 500 c-suite execute level crypto degen be beneficial in any capacity to help drive any axie related activities?? ๐Ÿ˜‡๐Ÿค“๐Ÿคช๐Ÿ”ฅ๐Ÿง™โ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿค
The Jiho๐Ÿฆ‡๐Ÿ”Š
@how2dao we have a strong community in the USA. Definitely lots of work to be done! Around 7% of our players are from the USA but we estimate around 20% of our spend, so it's quite important.
ฮผDefiTyฮผ
@jihoz_axie ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘ ๐Ÿค“๐Ÿคœ๐Ÿ”ฅ๐Ÿค›๐Ÿค“ 7% is actually higher than i expected! Well if you ever see an opportunity to put me in ....dont hesitate to reach out ! I spend all my time working to spicy up LinkedIn and drive adoption on the most dry and humor devoid SM platform via emojis and satire ๐Ÿ™ƒ๐Ÿ”ฅ https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyle...
Sharath Kuruganty
Hey Jeff! Thanks for doing this AMA! As a community leader, what's one thing you advise founders to focus on when building a community and one thing they should not bother about?
The Jiho๐Ÿฆ‡๐Ÿ”Š
@5harath I think that especially in Web 3, community building is the only distribution strategy that works in the early days. It needs to be a grassroots movement. While it may seem like your time would be better spent on doing big paid campaigns and even reaching out to large influencers, you need to use that ammunition at the proper time. Community is the bedrock.
Bradley Miles
What is the future of Layer 2 solutions and NFT gaming? Will each ecosystem have their own L2 or will there be some great convergence? (shout out westchester).
The Jiho๐Ÿฆ‡๐Ÿ”Š
@bradley_miles_ I think there may be a few distinct data storage layers but assets that, through adoption, are universally interpreted and accepted.
Eze Vidra
What do you say to the people that claim that Play to Earn is a ponzi scheme?
The Jiho๐Ÿฆ‡๐Ÿ”Š
@ediggs Not everyone who plays Axie is looking for a financial return. There are other types of rewards such as power, respect, and fun. These players trade their financial capital for other types of capital within the ecosystem. I recommend taking a look at: https://axiepulse.substack.com/p... for more information!
Eze Vidra
What are the biggest opportunities for startups in the metaverse?
The Jiho๐Ÿฆ‡๐Ÿ”Š
@ediggs I'm interested in social coordination tools but I'm worried that they might just be features for Discord to integrate rather than viable businesses.
Luis Poveda
Hello. Are you thinking to implement any L2 solution because the prohibitive gas fees?
The Jiho๐Ÿฆ‡๐Ÿ”Š
@luis_carlos_poveda We're using Ronin, which is our NFT scaling solution!
Dr Test
Hi Jeff, how do you plan on addressing the massive inflation in $SLP which is negative for players earnings?
The Jiho๐Ÿฆ‡๐Ÿ”Š
@dr_test Please read the whitepaper! We have plans to add many more sinks in the future.
Giuliano Ambrosio
Hi Jeff, congratulations for your vision of integrating game and NFT. I am your crypto investor, almost from day one. What were your main difficulties and how did you solve them?
Eze Vidra
Are there any examples of surprising user bases/user behaviour you didn't expect? i.e. I heard about people in the Philippines who doubled their income playing Axie
Adeeb Sayeed
Hello jeff, love from India. We are trying to build the next YGG in India, would you say it is better to build domestic first or global first? Also how important is it for us to have our own token?
Marcelo Kraven
Hello Jihoz, I'm playing Axie for 3 months now, and I would like to thank you for all! You taught me that decentralization is the way! I am developing a table RPG system based on Axie, and I would like to know if the Company is interested in supporting this kind of projects. I'm also interested to know if there are other NFT games interested in using the Ronin network. With love, Kraven